Some officials of Nigeria Air are in Europe shopping for aircraft, the management of the national carriers said yesterday.
The management blamed the delay in the airline’s takeoff on the stringent requirements that must be met before the commencement of commercial operation by airlines.
According to its interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Captain Dapo Olumide, the impact of COVID-19 on the industry and the constant flight delays and cancellations in Europe hampered the process for the acquisition of aircraft.
He spoke in Abuja while receiving the Air Transport License (ATL) from the Director-General of Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Captain Musa Nuhu.
The CEO allayed fears that Nigeria Air might go under like the previous national carrier – Nigerian Airways.
Presenting the licence, Nuhu said: “The ATL process is a step and one of the certificates required towards schedule passenger operations and it is a big step forward in the processing of the Air Operating Certificate (AOC) which is presently ongoing.
“This ATL has gone through all the processes. Congratulations and we look forward to you fulfiling the remaining requirements for the AOC so that we can hand over the AOC certificate to you.
“Welcome on board and we hope you guys will start flying soon like other operators in Nigeria, we hope you actively participate in the Single Africa Air Transport Market (SATM) for the benefit of the national economic growth and greater contribution from the aviation industry to the GDP.”
Captain Olumide explained while the carrier had not taken off. He said: “The first aircraft will be here shortly. The reason why one of the persons in the team is not here is because he is in Europe at the moment sourcing for the aircraft.
“The aircraft are available but there are all sorts of issues because this is summer peak period and as you know… post-COVID. All the aircraft were parked in the desert.
“The airlines are bringing them out slowly, it takes time to bring an aircraft out of storage and there is a further complication; a lot of flights in Europe are being cancelled or delayed because everybody was laid off during the COVID and they don’t have enough staff in the airports to turn around flights.
“So, there is a lot of cancellation going on. It is very difficult to get the aircraft but we have discussions going on with providers of Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) and we are just waiting for the right terms of the agreement.
“We already have aircraft identified because that is one of the requirements for the NCAA but we are just trying to perfect titles and so on.”
On the likely date the airline would begin operation, the chief executive said: “There is a process to issuing an Air Operating Certificate (AOC). When you have an AOC and ATL, you can commence commercial schedule operation for hire and reward. The date is largely based on the process that one is following to get the AOC.
“It is not something that can be issued because they like my face, there are five steps and you have to go through all the steps and we are working around the clock. That explains why the other team members are not here. They are working round the clock to set up this airline and to meet those stringent requirements.
“The stringent nature of the requirement is why the ATL we have today has taken long to be issued because there are processes to go through, no magic wand. We are doing the same thing for the AOC, when we have that certificate, we will commence operation.”
On what the national carrier hopes to achieve, Olumide said: “We want to bring Nigeria closer to the world; we want more people to have access to Nigeria and more people from Nigeria to go out of this country.
“There are over 80 BASAs and you will agree with me that with our existing infrastructure, we are not utilising these BASAs.
“When you have a national airline, you can deploy capacity to those major routes. It is not about revenue drive but exposure and we have airlines serving these markets. The more Nigeria is involved in this, the greater the addition to the economy of the country.”
On the fear that Nigeria Air may fail like Nigerian Airways, he said: “Nigeria Airways was government-owned and government-run. But this one is a Nigerian airline that has been midwifed to hand over to Nigerian institutional investors who will own 51percent at the minimum of the airline and that is very different from what we had in the past.
“This airline will have a minimum stake of 51percent investors, the government will have 5 percent and the rest will be to strategic equity partner. This is something we need in Nigeria to give us international credibility and access to the market.”